In my last article I showed examples of how HDR in Lightroom and Photomatix compared to processing a single image when the image fit within the dynamic range of the sensor. In this article I’ll show the same comparisons when the image exceeds the dynamic range of the sensor. This is actually from my first ever attempt at HDR all the way back in 2010. It wasn’t as bad as I feared it might be. It took me a few more years to really perfect bad HDR habits. But this shot had a range of brightness from the bright outdoors and the relatively bright light fixtures, to the dim interior of the chapel. Also since this was 2010, my Canon 5D Mark II didn’t have nearly the dynamic range of my current 5D Mark IV. Also all of these images may lose some detail when this article is converted to PDF format.
Here are the six brackets I shot and they range from -3 stops to + 2 stops in 1 stop Increments. This was before I began bracketing in 2 stop increments.
Here is the image that results from trying to edit the single normally exposed image. In this image the light fixtures are completely blown out, and when I edited and reduced the highlights, they just become a muddy gray rather than showing any detail. Also I had to open up the shadows to maintain detail. The net result is a fairly flat looking image (even though I increased contrast) and gray light fixtures and windows without detail.
Below is the result I achieved by merging the six images to HDR in Lightroom, and then editing using just the basic controls in the tone panel. At first glance it may look similar to the single image, but notice how much more detail there is in the light fixtures, and the shadows are cleaner with better detail. Already you should see the advantages of HDR for this image, and that it was really necessary to capture the dynamic range of this image.
This is how I edited it back in 2010 using Photomatix 4.0. Notice that even though you see details in the windows and the outdoors, in the light fixtures, and in the shadows, there is contrast with even some blacks in the darkest shadows. It has a different look than the Lightroom HDR, with more pop and contrast. Photomatix 4 had different modes and presets compared to the current 6.0 version.
This is how I processed it in Photomatix 6 using the details enhancer mode and my current technique and settings.
I also tried processing it in the tone balance mode to see if that more closely resembles the tonemapping of version 4, but I don’t think it is very similar at all.
So now I’ve shown you four different HDR edits: LR merge to HDR, Photomatix 4.0, and two modes in Photomatix 6.0. You may like one more than the others, or you may not like any of them. But hopefully from this example you can see how brackets in HDR really can create a much better image than a single exposure where the range exceeds the dynamic range of the sensor. This still happens, even with the best of cameras. Typically it happens with a mix of indoor and outdoor exposures, very dark shade and bright sun, or an image with strong light sources. Then it’s HDR to the rescue. Even if you don’t use (or misuse) HDR as much I do, it’s a good tool to have in your bag for situations like this.
In photography HDR stands for high dynamic range and is used to reproduce a greater range of tones than is possible with normal techniques. The human eye can see a dynamic range of about 20 stops. The best current DSLRs have a dynamic range of about 14 stops at low ISO and proper exposure. Dynamic range capability decreases with higher ISO and poor exposure. My first camera had a dynamic range of only about 10 stops. When the range of tones in a scene exceeds the ability of the sensor, either the shadows will be blocked up, or the highlights will be blown out, or both. This happens frequently in harsh light. HDR involves shooting several images with bracketed exposures to increase the dynamic range available in an image.
I recently read a statement to the effect that HDR is no longer necessary now that recent camera models have such fantastic sensors. Without stating it directly, this implies that the only reason (or excuse?) for HDR is to capture an image when the range of tones exceeds the sensors capability to record them.
So, is HDR dead? Is there any reason or excuse to shoot brackets and process with HDR techniques when the range of tones falls within our sensor’s capabilities? With the newer sensors, it’s much less common for the scene to exceed our camera’s range. Those of you who have been on photo outings with me know that even though I walk around with a Canon 5D Mark IV which has very good dynamic range, you’ll still see (or hear) me shooting bursts of brackets, usually at -2 stops, normal and +2 stops. Why? Because for me it’s not only about the dynamic range.
Most of us know the advantages of shooting under overcast skies that reduce the contrast range. In the studio we use light modifiers to mimic overcast light and decrease contrast. Certainly with lower contrast scenes, HDR is not necessary to capture an acceptable image. For my particular style of photography, I find that an HDR image can make tones, textures and sometimes even colors really pop. Could I make an acceptable or even good image without HDR? Yes, but again it comes back to personal style, vision, and how I want the image to feel.
So here are two images from the Taos New Mexico Pueblo taken last year. It was partly to very overcast, and certainly the light didn’t require HDR. There were no reflective tones that demanded HDR. But I’ll try to show you the difference in the look and feel of the images without HDR, and with two HDR techniques.
Here are the three brackets (-2, normal and +2) used for my first image. You can see that the normal exposure doesn’t have any blown out highlights or totally blocked up shadows.
This is just the normal exposure processed in Lightroom using just the normal tonal controls. It is a perfectly acceptable, maybe even good, image. Certainly there are no blown highlights or black shadows.
Here, I created an HDR image in Lightroom from the three brackets using the merge to HDR function. This has become my go-to technique when I want a realistic look, even when I have exceeded the range of my sensor. I’ve processed it using just the tonal controls and here is the result. I really don’t see any real differences, and given the low contrast scene, that’s probably to be expected.
Here I took the three brackets into Photomatix 6 Pro and processed the image by adjusting white and black points, and detail contrast using the image enhancer mode. While you may not see it clearly at this size (and it may have lost resolution and detail in the conversion to PDF), the details and textures seem much sharper to the eye. The colors may pop just a bit more, but not that drastically for this image. One of the characteristics of “Bad HDR” (and I’ve done more than my fair share) is the lack of shadows, causing an image to look flat and unrealistic. When I process in Photomatix I look at the preview and the histogram to make sure I’ll have at least a touch of black in the shadows. In this image, the smaller shadows that show texture are actually accentuated.
Here are the three brackets (-2, normal and +2) used for my second image. By the time I shot this scene, the sun was out a bit more and there was more contrast, but well within the range of my sensor. Again, the normal exposure doesn’t have any blown out highlights or totally blocked up shadows.
This is just the normal exposure processed in Lightroom using just the normal tonal controls. Again, it’s a perfectly acceptable image.
Here is the result of creating the HDR image in Lightroom. It was processed using just the tonal controls in the develop panel. Again the look is pretty similar to the single normally exposed image. That’s because we are well within the range of the sensor.
Now here’s the image processed using the three brackets in Photomatix. While the large shadow under the porch is opened up, there is still a dark shadow under the gate. But once again the shadows of the textures of the Adobe are emphasized, bringing out the detail. This is the image that best fits my personal vision for this image.
So, is HDR really dead? Just kidding. After all it’s part of my style.
In my earlier article on composition, I wrote that the goal of composition was to guide the viewer’s eye through the image and to our subject. If we have control of lighting, we can also use that to direct the viewer. If we don’t have control of lighting, we can fake lighting effects to a degree in Lightroom (or Photoshop or Adobe Camera Raw). In these two images, I’ll do basic editing and then show how we can direct the eye to our subject, using the localized adjustments including the adjustment brush, the radial filter and vignetting. Remember that the eye tends to go toward the brightest parts of an image, so if our subject is dark or in shadow, we can lighten it to draw the eye.
Here, we have a single subject working in a field. Straight from the camera, it’s flat, our subject is not well lit, and his face is heavily shadowed by his hat. Our goal is change the light to make him brighter, and in particular to open up the shadows on his face.
This is the original with no adjustments at all.
First I’ll do just basic corrections using the tone panel in Lightroom. I’ve set the white and black points, the highlights and shadows, the overall exposure and contrast. I’ve also added some clarity and vibrance to bring out details and colors. Already it looks a bit better.
I always add camera profile and chromatic aberration adjustments. The camera profile corrects for geometric distortion and light fall-off of a lens. It is specific for each brand and lens model. Normally Lightroom automatically determines the lens used, but occasionally it needs prompting using the drop down menus. It is probably more important in images with straight lines than in this image, but I do it with all of my images anyway. Chromatic aberration is the slight color fringing along sharp edges. It is worse with some lenses, and this setting usually helps.
I also add sharpening. By default Lightoom adds some sharpening, but for a subject like this with a lot of detail, I increase that to the settings shown here.
Here I’ll use the radial filter to darken everything around our farmer. By default, the radial filter effects what is outside of the selection. It’s also important to keep the feathering at at least 50% so the effect isn’t so sharp edged and noticeable. Here I’ve gone with -.6 exposure. Notice that invert is not checked, so the effect is outside of the selection oval.
While this pulls our eye to the farmer more, his face is still in the shadow of his hat. I’ll use the adjustment brush to increase the exposure on his face by +1.22. Make sure the feathering is set to 100 so we don’t see a sharp edge to the lightening.
To add some more emphasis to our subject, I’ll use a second brush adjustment to darken the foreground and corners. I selected a large brush, again with 100% feathering and -0.96 exposure.
As a last touch I’m adding a slight vignette at -12 to darken all of the corners just slightly. The vignette should be so subtle that it’s hard to see where it begins and ends. It should never be as extreme as my bad example below.
So here is the original image straight from the camera, and then the final edited version. Hopefully you’ll see the difference in how your eye is drawn to the farmer.
In this second picture, my goal is still to draw the eye to the two farmers, but I’ll have to use the radial filter a bit differently.
The original image was a bit flat and the farmers are dark and don’t attract your eye. Here I’ve done the basic tone edits of exposure contrast, and set higlights and shadows and white and black points and added vibrance. Notice I’ve made the overall exposure a bit dark, but you’ll see why when I use the radial filter in the next step.
Now I’ll use the radial filter to highlight our farmers. By default, the radial filter darkens everything outside of the selection, so if I try to highlight one farmer, I darken the other.
So I made my overall exposure a bit dark, and used the radial filter to lighten the farmer on the left. But to make this work I checked invert, and raised the exposure within the selection rather than the usual darkening.
I’ll repeat the effect by right clicking on the radial filter and select duplicate. I can then drag this over to the second farmer, and resize it and now both farmers are highlighted equally.
Rather than use the vignette tool, I’ll use a large adjustment brush at -.70 to darken the foreground and left side of the image. The reason I chose not to use the vignette is that it would darken the sky in the upper right.
Now the image feels a bit dark overall, so I’ll go back to the basic panel to increase the overall exposure from -.36 to +.24.
As a final touch I’ll crop in a bit to position the farmers for more impact.
And here is the original image followed by the final edit. Again I hope you feel how the emphasis has shifted much more to the farmers.
In the bad old days of shooting film, we had no suitable means of backing up our images, and most importantly, making sure we got home with good images. We had no reliable way to ensure our camera was working properly or that our exposure settings were correct. Even if we shot everything perfectly, the film could still be lost or damaged in processing. Once it was processed, we had original negatives or slides, so backup meant making and storing prints or having duplicate slides made. Prints, slides, and negatives could all deteriorate if not stored properly. And of course, in case of fire or theft, everything would be lost if copies weren’t stored off-site. Now in the days of digital, we have the option of having important slides and negatives scanned into digital and stored in a safe location (keep reading.)
We are now in the digital age; we can see on the camera that everything is working and we have good exposure, and we don’t have all of those physical negatives, prints, and slides to store. We can store thousands of images on a single memory card and literally hundreds of thousands of images on a single hard drive. But that also means we could lose thousands or hundreds of thousands of images in an instant.
Protecting Digital Media in the Field
As Adam Jones reminded us at his Winter Wildlife Workshop, your most important job as a photographer is to come back with good images. It’s no fun to invest the time and money of going to a weeklong workshop or safari and have nothing to show for it.
1) It is important to protect your memory cards, whether they are CF, C-Fast, SD, or micro SD. The SD and micro SD are a bit more delicate than CF cards, but you should handle them all with care. While I tend to use high-capacity cards, like 128 GB, I often use two cameras or change cards before they are full.
2) Store your cards in a protective case and not just loose in your pocket. I use Pelican card cases. They are a bit bulkier, but they are crushproof and waterproof. I trust them to protect my cameras, so why not my cards? Be particularly careful not to get dirt and finger grease on any exposed contacts, and be gentle when inserting or removing cards in the camera.
3) If you are shooting a commercial job or a once-in-a-lifetime event, don’t trust everything to just one card. Some cameras have two card slots and let you save images to both. It slows down your fast shooting speed, but it may be cheap insurance since you essentially back up as you shoot.
4) Place a label on each of your cards with a minimum of your name and phone number. If you misplace a card, whoever finds it has a way to contact you. Without that info, even the most honest person can’t help.
5) Have a system, so you know which cards have been filled and which are empty at a glance. I put ready-to-use cards face up with the manufacturer’s label showing in my case. Used cards are face down with my name label showing. Or use separate cases.
6) Always format a new card in the camera before using it, and reformat it in the camera, but only after you have downloaded the images, and they are stored in at least two places. I’m even so picky that I format each card only in the camera I’ll be shooting with. All of my Canon cameras use the same format, but why take chances. I also never swap cards that have images on them from camera to camera. Never format a card in the computer; always use the camera! Never format your cards until the images are in at least two different places. If you accidentally format a card that has not been downloaded, immediately set it aside. Do not shoot with it. You may be able to recover the images later with a recovery program.
7) Never go out shooting without an extra card or two. If you shoot more than you planned, or your first card fails, you can switch cards and keep shooting.
8) Never delete images from the card individually. It can be tempting to delete a bad image when you see it or delete images to make room when your card is almost full, but DON’T. According to one of the manufacturer’s reps, this is the leading cause of corrupted cards. Pretend that the delete button on your camera doesn’t exist. Change to a new card when it is nearly full and reformat the card in the camera only after it has been downloaded and is stored in two places.
9) Stop shooting with a card before it is full. I usually change cards when there are fewer than 100 images left. I have heard of cards being corrupted when trying to write an image when there isn’t enough room for it. Not only does the last image get lost, but the card may become corrupted, possibly losing hundreds or thousands of images.
10) Download a card recovery program for your computer and learn to use it. Recoverit, Puran File Recovery, and Recuva are free. Lexar cards come with a link to download their “Image Rescue.” An internet search will find several others. Have one on your home computer and on any laptops you travel with—practice recovering images from a card you have already downloaded and backed up. Format the card and run your recovery program. You may be surprised to see it recovering files from several past shoots. Recovery can be slow; a large card could easily take 12 hours or more.
After the Shoot
1) When traveling, carry a laptop and an external hard drive if possible. At the end of each shooting day, download your cards into the computer (I import mine into Lightroom) and copy them to the external drive. Now your images are in two places, and only then do you reformat your cards if you have to. Never format your cards until the images are in at least two different places. Keep the external drive and laptop separate, so if one is stolen or misplaced, you still have the other. Also, if you have a computer, you may create Lightroom catalogs and do some image editing. The disadvantage is you may do some image editing; you have to sleep sometimes. Also, there’s the extra bag, weight, and bulk when you fly; it’s less of an issue driving.
2) If you don’t carry a laptop, use a more portable system. My Canons have a CF card slot and an SD card slot. I can copy all of my images from the CF card to the SD card. Now my images are on two cards, and I keep them in separate places. When I’m traveling, one set of cards stays in my pocket. I also don’t reformat either card until I have downloaded them to my home computer and backed up. The disadvantage is that I have to have a corresponding size SD card for each CF card, and I have to carry enough cards to cover the whole event or trip. I usually don’t save to both cards in the field as this slows down my maximum frame rate and the number of shots in a burst.
3) Western Digital makes an SSD backup drive with a built-in SD card reader and USB port if you don’t have two card slots. You can download images to it without a computer. It has a built-in battery that can last 10 hours and can be recharged when you have power available. And it has apps that allow you to set up a network with your phone or tablet to view or organize files. You still only have one backup, so I wouldn’t reformat my cards until I’ve downloaded and backed up. Never format your cards until the images are in at least two different places.
On The Computer
Remember two of the most important of Murphy’s laws: 1. Anything that can go wrong will. 2. If there is the chance of more than one thing going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will happen. Also, remember that there are only two kinds of hard drives in the world- those that have crashed and those that are going to crash. Imagine if you were to lose all of your images, including irreplaceable family memories, due to drive failure. It happened to my stepdaughter. It just happened to one of my fellow photographers. One of the bands I played in worked for two months recording an album. We had all the basic tracks down and were about to add some overdubs when the hard drive holding all of the work crashed. Of course, there was no backup. A data recovery company said they could “probably” recover everything for $1200 upfront with no guarantees. Our producer/bandleader decided to walk away from the project, and we had nothing to show for literally hundreds of hours of work.
1) Always think worst-case scenario. You’ve backed up your data, but your backups are right there by your computer. What if your home burns or a burglar steals your computer and all of your external drives? Your backups are internal, but what if a lightning strike or power surge fries all of your drives.
2) Everything must be stored in at least two places. At the very least, this means on two different hard drives. This could be two internal hard drives, an internal and an external, or on two different computers. Never format your cards until the images are in at least two different places. Most experts recommend a 3-2-1 backup system. There should be three copies of your data, two copies onsite, and one copy stored off-site.
3) Have off-site storage to protect against fire, floods, tornadoes, burglars, electrical surges, enraged spouses, jealous ex’s, destructive pets…you get the idea. You could have external or removable hard drives that you back up to weekly and then store off-site with a friend, at the office, or in your safe deposit box at the bank. Each week bring them home, update your backup and get them back off-site ASAP. In a catastrophic situation, you might lose a week’s data, but that is better than losing everything.
4) Some photographers will consider backing up to DVDs or BlueRay. This is slow and tedious and requires storing and indexing a lot of disks. With a large image collection, it could be several hundred disks. And most importantly, disks are not archival or permanent. Disks deteriorate in storage even without being used, so they may not be usable when you need your backups.
5) Someone also asked me to address “Photosticks.” These are flash drives with incorporated software that searches for images and copies them to the flash drive when attached to a phone or computer. The largest I’ve seen is 256 GB, and that wouldn’t even cover a week of serious shooting for me. My current collection is over 7 TB and would require almost 30 256 GB Photosticks. It’s probably a good option for casual photographers or those who only shoot with their phones. Still, most serious photographers will probably have much larger image collections than a “Photostick” can handle.
6) Use an online or cloud-based storage service. I use Backblaze, my friend Bill uses Carbonite, and both are about $7/mo. I believe Apple has a cloud backup, but I’m not an Apple authority. When you first set the service up, you install their software, which runs in the background and copies your files to the server. This initial upload can take several weeks or even months if you have as many images as I do. That sounds intimidating, but those weeks are going to pass whether you back up or not. For me, it’s worth the peace of mind. Once that huge initial upload is complete, the software backs up at whatever interval you set. If you lose a few files, you can download them online. Most services can download your files onto a hard drive and ship them to you if you lose a whole drive. You can either install this drive or copy the files and return the drive for credit. The big advantage of the online backup services is that you don’t have to keep physically swapping drives, and after the initial download, your files are continually backed up. Even in a catastrophic failure, you only lose a few hours of work or none at all.
6) There are disk recovery companies that can retrieve data from failed hard drives. They remove the data platters from the dead drive and build a new drive with them. As I mentioned above, they can be costly, and there is no guarantee of success. This should be your last line of defense, and if you’ve planned and implemented a good backup strategy, you should never need this.
7) Here are some tips about ransomware since it seems to be in the news daily. Ransomware encrypts files on your computer and offers a solution to decrypt them for a fee. Sometimes this works, sometimes not. Ransomware will try to infect all of the files on your computer, so if both sets of images are on drives in the same computer or external drives that stay connected and turned on, those files may also be infected. The best practice is to have an “air gap” between drives to prevent the virus from seeing and infecting all of your files. The best protection against ransomware is not to get it in the first place. Malicious websites usually transmit it, and often a link to one of these websites is included in an email directing you to click on a link. If you get a suspicious email from someone you don’t know, or even from someone you do know with a message that doesn’t make sense coming from that user, DO NOT CLICK ON ANY QUESTIONABLE LINKS. Also, don’t download and install pirated software. Almost all pirated programs contain viruses, so it just isn’t worth the risk. On Windows 10, you can turn on “Folder Access Control” and make sure the drives or folders containing your images are protected. While they are less commonly attacked, Macs are not immune to ransomware, but I don’t know Macs well enough to recommend a preventive strategy.
Lightroom
If you use Lightroom, all the information about your images and the development instructions are stored in the LR catalog (but not the actual images or previews). Make sure to back this up regularly and on a different drive than where your catalog is typically stored. I have my LR set to back up every time I exit LR. I don’t always choose to if I haven’t added images or made many changes, but I always back up at least every two days. I go to my backup directory regularly and delete all but the last two LR catalog backups. If your LR catalog becomes corrupted (it happened to me once), copy your backup to the location of the old catalog and rename it, and you’re up and running. You may have to re-import any images added since your last backup, but that beats creating a whole new catalog. By the way, backing up the catalog does not back up the LR previews, but you can have LR recreate them. Also, backing up the LR catalog does not back up your image files.
Summary
If you use all of these strategies, hopefully, your images will be around for years to come and be easily restored if or when disaster strikes. Some of these strategies may also make setting up a new computer quicker and easier.
I’m going to start with the basics of how to create a rainy window shot that doesn’t require any editing tricks. If you get your exposure and lighting right your shots will look great straight out of the camera and need little or even no editing. Then I’ll get a little more advanced and show you how to kick it up a notch in Photoshop.
The Basic Setup
This image starts with a thin piece of clear plastic or Plexiglas. I used the plastic from an old, cheap 30×40 inch frame. I wouldn’t use anything valuable because of the mess (see below), and using actual glass is potentially just too dangerous. I use large A-clamps to hang my plastic from a background support stand, but you could use a rope or clothes line to clamp to. I also used a black velvet background to get the dark background that makes the second part of this work. But for the basic shot almost any background could work.
The first time I tried this I used a spray bottle (any cosmetic or cleaning sprayer with an adjustable nozzle will work) of water to mist droplets onto the plastic. The problem with water is that it quickly drips and produces long drips and runs that are always right in the wrong place. A much better solution is to use a mixture of equal parts of glycerin and water. The glycerin makes the drops adhere to the plastic and not run. Glycerin is available at any drugstore. It’s also best to start misting lightly and add more spray as you go along.
I should say a bit about cleaning up the glycerin when you get through. Glycerin is gooey and slimy and will probably require a couple of cleanings with a glass cleaner. Do your cleaning immediately after shooting, or the plastic will be almost impossible to clean after the water evaporates. Also, empty the sprayer, rinse it with hot water and spray with the hot water until the tubing and nozzle are clean. Otherwise the sprayer will be hopelessly gummed up.
Lighting
The main light is a small softbox about 45 degrees above and 45 degrees to camera left. The higher angle prevents the light from glaring back into the lens. I used a strobe with a beauty dish and diffuser, but any softbox or small shoot-through umbrella would work. You could also use a speedlight, or even a daylight balanced CFL or LED light. It’s not totally necessary, but I used a strip box with a grid about 45 degrees behind my model for some extra separation since she has dark hair.
Shooting
You’ll find it much easier to position your light(s) and adjust your exposure before you begin misting the plastic. Also you may find your autofocus wants to lock onto the droplets rather than the model, particularly if you have a heavy mist or large drops. Be careful to look at your focus and adjust manually if needed. I also shot at f/11 to help with depth of field. And after giving you all of these warnings, I still deleted some shots that weren’t perfectly in focus.
These will probably be head and shoulder shots, so use a lens in the 85-135 mm range on a full frame camera or 50-85 mm on a crop sensor. With good lighting, exposure and careful focus you should have some shots that are good with little or no editing. You can see the basic effect below.
Kicking Things Up a Notch (If you have Photoshop, you know you want to)
This next process is subtle, but creates the illusion of lights of the city (or neon lights, or car lights, etc) and helps sell the illusion that this was actually shot through a window at night. It doesn’t work well at all if you shot your model against a light background.
Start by selecting a predominantly dark night scene with some colorful lighting. I have a lot of night images, and a collection in Lightroom that helps me find them. So for this example I picked one of the shots of Chattanooga to which I had added fireworks (see the April 2018 newsletter). Open both the window image and night shot in Photoshop.
With the night image open in Photoshop, use Ctrl-A to select all of it and Ctrl-C to copy it.
Then open your window image and use Ctrl-V to paste it as a layer over your window image. You’ll see that it completely hides the base image but we’ll fix that soon.
Even though it’s likely that no one would notice, reflections in windows are reversed and so reversing ours will add a little more realism. To do that, select the night image layer. Enter Ctrl – T to edit in free transform, right click inside of the selection and choose “Flip horizontally”. Hit enter to complete the transformation. While you are in free transform you may also drag out the corners of the image to make it larger, and allow some extra space to move it around when we put it in the window scene. Here the image is open in Photoshop and free transform is open.
A reflected image wouldn’t be very sharp, so we’ll blur it with Gaussian blur. With the night image layer still selected, go to the filter menu, select blur and then Gaussian blur. I find between 8 and 20 usually works, but every image is different and your tastes may be different from mine. By the way, since we’re blurring anyway, you don’t have to start with a tack sharp original.
Now for the two things that really make this effect work, we’ll chage the night image blend mode to screen, and decrease the opacity until the effect is visible, but very subtle. I usually find something between 18-30% opacity works, but you may like more or less. If the night shot is too strong over key parts of your model, add a layer mask to the night image. Use a very soft black brush at about 30% opacity and paint on the mask over the areas where the night scenes needs to be more subtle.
And this is what the completed image looks like.
And here are a couple of other examples. The image of the girl in the blue sweater was my first attempt using plain water and you can see how badly it ran.
This is another article that is a bit beyond basic, because it makes use of layers and layer masks in Photoshop. Other editing programs that allow the use of layers and masks such as Photoshop Elements would also work. My workflow starts in Lightroom, but it’s possible to load the images directly from Photoshop.
Shooting the Images
This technique works best with your camera on a tripod. You could hand hold your camera if you resist the temptation to follow and track the action. But since you already know all of the advantages of a tripod, why wouldn’t you use it? I prefer to use a shutter speed that freezes (or almost freezes) the action. So my camera is usually set either to shutter priority or manual mode so that I am in control of the shutter speed. Set your camera to its highest frame rate, frame up your composition and then hold down the shutter through the whole action sequence.
I shot this sequence of a canoe going over Baby Falls, which is just up the road from Bald River Falls in Tellico. My settings were 1/800 sec, f/8, ISO 200, 10 frames/sec, 35mm with a 24-105 on a Canon 7D Mark II. And of course I was using a sturdy tripod.
Selecting the Images
At ten frames/sec, I had way too many images and that would create more image overlap than I like. If your camera has a lower frame rate this may not be much of a problem. Or you may decide to use every other or every third image. Here is my original sequence and I chose to use the five images marked in yellow. Depending on your subject and frame rate, you may choose to use more or fewer images.
Select your images by ctrl-clicking (cmd clicking for you Apple fans) each image that you want to use. At this point go to the develop module, make sure that auto synch is on and edit your picture and the edits will be applied to all images. If you edit each image individually they may not look consistent when blended into the final image.
Getting the images into Photoshop
With the images still selected return to the library module and right click, select “edit in” and then choose “open as layers in Photoshop”.
Creating the Composite in Photoshop
At this point, all of the images should be open as layers in Photoshop and if you used a tripod (you did, didn’t you?) they should be perfectly aligned.
If you didn’t use a tripod (Oh the shame of it all), then ctrl (cmd) click on each layer, choose “edit” and then choose “Auto align layers”.
Creating the layer masks
The bottom layer is our background layer, also called the “plate” in compositing. This layer contains one canoe image and our entire scene. We won’t be masking this layer at all. Uncheck the “eyeball on all of the layers except the second layer. Select the lasso tool and draw a fairly tight selection around the canoe.
With your selection in place, go to the bottom right and select the third icon from the left to create a layer mask. You will see the mask is all filled in black, except your selected area. With just this layer turned on, everything but the canoe is transparent (indicated by the checkered pattern).
Repeat the process with each succeeding layer. After creating the mask for each layer, check all of the “eyeballs” to make all of the layers visible. If you need to hide part of a layer, paint on the mask with the brush set to the color black and 100% opacity. If you don’t want to completely hide something, set the brush to about 20% opacity and paint in black to make the area transparent. Each new brush stroke will increase the transparency. If you need show more of the image in a layer, paint on the mask with a white brush.
When working with masks, remember “White reveals, black conceals.”
Flatten the image by selecting “layer” and “flatten image”
Finishing the Image
I improved the contrast by using NIK Color Efex 4 and then the tonal contrast filter, using the “standard” setting. I then flattened the image.
At this point, the image felt a little dark, so I opened the Camera RAW filter (ctrl-shift-A) and increased the exposure, increased shadow brightness, and decreased highlights slightly.
And here is the final image with all of the edits.
With a little imagination, you will think of many other uses for this technique. It would work well for track and field sports like pole vaulting or hurdles, or even for doing a multiple image portrait with your subject in different locations within the image.
This article is actually a little beyond “basic” as it involves Photoshop CC rather than Lightroom, Photoshop elements or Nikon or Canon image editing software.
In my last article on composition, I mentioned that cropping could be used to improve composition. Most of the time you would think of cropping as the removal of unwanted areas from the periphery of a photograph to remove an unwanted object or irrelevant noise from the periphery of a photograph, or to change its aspect ratio, or to improve the overall composition. In other words, we’re cropping in.
However about a year ago Adobe quietly added a new feature named “content aware cropping” to Photoshop CC. This new feature actually allows us to crop out, not just in, and it generates new image to fill in the blank areas. I’ll show you a couple of examples so you can see what it does and how to use it.
Here’s an image shot at Photofest 2018. There are a couple of problems with the image; the rider’s hair is touching the upper border of the image, and there should be more room in front of the horse and rider. A couple of years ago this image would have either been deleted or required a lot of tedious cloning to salvage it.
Here I’ve opened the image in Photoshop, and selected the crop tool, and most importantly checked the content aware option (circled in red).
In the shot below, I’ve dragged my cropping borders up and to the left. In the bad old days, the white areas would have remained white. But now, press enter, and prepare to be amazed.
Using some really powerful math, Photoshop evaluates the area next to the areas to be filled, and generates new image to fill the blanks areas. Sometimes it is perfect or almost perfect, and sometime we did need to do some touch up work with the clone tool. How well it works seems to depend on how much extra space is added, and how much detail is in the surrounding areas.
In the shot below, content aware has done a pretty good job, but it has copied some extra hair above the rider, and it has repeated a series of highlights in the waves in front of the horse’s hooves.
Below I’ve done my cloning to remove the extra hair and the pattern in the waves. It’s not necessary, but I always clone into a new blank layer. That way I can turn the layer on and off to see my results, and if I really mess up, I can just delete the layer and start over. If I cloned on the image layer, I might have to quit without saving and lose any other edits I had already done.
Below is the final image with all changes. By the way, as I said earlier just a few years ago, this image might have been deleted. When you have an image that is good, but not quite perfect, don’t be too quick to delete it. You never know what new features may be coming in the future that will make it possible to fix the image.
Here is another image from Photofest 2018 which has several problems that can be fixed with content aware cloning. Here the horse’s mane is clipped, there needs to be more space in front of the horse and rider, and the horizon is way beyond crooked. In my defense, this happened quickly, right beside me while I was shooting in another direction, and I barely got turned around in time for two quick shots at the wide end of my zoom lens. With the horse up in the air (and a little too close for comfort), I didn’t have time for perfect composition and leveling the horizon.
First I’ll add some extra space above and in front of the rider. I was generous in adding space, because I’ll need it in a later step. Again I selected the crop tool, and made sure content aware was checked on the option bar.
Again, content aware did a pretty good job, but it added a copy of part of the rider’s head, a bad spot in the sky and a dip in the horizon.
Here I cloned out the extra head and the bad spot in the sky. I decided to wait until after the next step to fix the dip in the horizon. I added the tip of the horse’s ear and extended some of the mane hair so that it didn’t look clipped. Again I did my cloning on a new blank layer.
To fix the crooked horizon, I selected the crop tool, and then selected the straighten tool on the option bar. I dragged this along the horizon line and the image was rotated just the right amount. With content aware checked, the white areas will be filled with computer generated image. If this isn’t checked, Photoshop will crop the image down to remove the white areas.
And here is the final image with all of the cropping and straightening done. I also applied NIK Color Efex 4 Tonal Contrast filter to the sky and water.
In this article, I’m going to explain how to add fireworks to an image. Why not just shoot them live you ask? Well fireworks displays get rained out, there are crowds and traffic to contend with, it may be hard to find a good unobstructed view point with room to use a tripod, the fireworks may not be where you want them in the composition, or there aren’t enough bursts to satisfy you. Adding fireworks puts you in control. You can add as many bursts as you want and put them wherever you need them.
To make this possible, it’s good to have a file of fireworks images to choose from. Over the years I’ve found locations where I could shoot isolated bursts without worrying about composition. My basic exposure is f/8 and ISO 100. My shutter is set to bulb mode, which means it opens when I press the release (I use a cable release) and stays open until I let up on the release. I usually listen for the sound of a fireworks being fired, or look for the trail of one rising. I open the shutter and hold it until the burst is through. I usually only try to get one burst at a time, except for right at the end of a show when lots of fireworks are going off all at once.
For this lesson we’ll use a dusk image of Chattanooga as our base image and add four fireworks bursts from my library. Below are the base image and fireworks images we’ll start with.
We’ll start by opening our base image and all 4 fireworks files in Photoshop. (This should also work in Photoshop Elements). First select one of the fireworks files. Then open the camera raw filter and increase the contrast, and decrease the blacks. This will help our fireworks blend in more cleanly. I also usually increase saturation and vibrance so the colors will show up well. Then click OK. You could also do this step in Lightroom before opening the fireworks in Photoshop.
Make a selection around the burst, and hit Ctrl-C (Cmd-C for you Apple types) to copy your selection. At this point you could close this file.
Go back to your base image and enter Ctrl-V (Cmd-V) to paste your fireworks selection. At this point, it’s probably not the right size, not in the right place, and it’s surrounded by a black blob.
To resize the burst enter Ctrl-T (Cmd-T) to bring up free transform. Hold down the shift key and drag a corner in to change the size while keeping the same proportions. Hit return when it’s the right size. Use the move tool to drag it where you want it. Here’s the secret to blending the fireworks without that black blob – change the layer blend mode to “screen”. Only tones lighter than what’s below them will show and the black blob disappears.
Repeat these steps for as many fireworks bursts as you want. Here I’m using those four images.
If there are no reflective surfaces, go to Layers/Flatten image then save and you’re done. If there are reflective surfaces like the river in the Chattanooga shot there are a couple of additional steps that will add to the realism.
Start by selecting all of the fireworks layers by clicking on one, then hold Ctrl (Cmd) while clicking on each of the others. Right click and select merge layers. That puts all of the fireworks in one layer and they move and behave as one. You will need to change the blend mode of this merged layer to screen.
To create the reflections in the water we’ll create a new layer by duplicating the merged fireworks layer by hitting Ctrl-J (Cmd-J).
Select this layer and enter Ctrl-T (Cmd-T) to bring up free transform again. Right click inside the box and choose flip vertically. Hit return and use the move tool to drag the reflections layer down to the water.
Erase or mask the reflections from anything that isn’t reflective or that would block the reflections. To make the reflections blend more realistically, decrease the opacity until the reflections are more subtle. And choose filter/blur/gaussian blur and add a blur so the reflections don’t look too sharp. Something between 5 and 10 should work.
Now all that’s left is to go to Layers/flatten image, and then save and close.
I’m going to talk about night photography in the context of photographing cityscapes. That’s the main subject of my night photography and I am not an expert at other more specialized areas of night photography like astrophotography.
When to shoot
What is the best time to shoot night photographs? If you said “at night, of course” you’re actually wrong. The best time is actually during the “blue hour” which is from about 30 min before sunrise to about 10 min before sunrise, and from about 10 or 15 min after sunset till dark. I tend to think of the very first part of the blue hour as the “silver time” since the golden glow is gone, but the blues aren’t prominent yet.
If I’m shooting in the evening, I usually try to be in place and ready to shoot just before sunset. That way hopefully I get a colorful sunset as well as my night shots. I shoot until my exposures are at about 15 seconds at f/8 at ISO 100. The reason I stop then is not that my camera can’t capture a good image, but that by then the sky and shadows are getting black without detail or interest. If I’m shooting in the morning I try to be in place and ready to shoot at least 30 min before sunrise and I’ll shoot until the sun is a few degrees above the horizon.
I also find that if I’m shooting a city at night December through February work well because it’s dark earlier and more businesses and offices will have their lights on. Also you may get more lights on during the work week rather than on the weekend.
Exsate Golden Hour is an app available for both androids and IPhones that will calculate sunrise and sunset times, blue hour and golden hour times for your location. It will even integrate weather forecasts to predict colorful sunrises or sunsets. Definitely a must have for night photography.
Here is a sequence of Nashville from just after sunset to early blue hour then to late blue hour.
This shot of Pittsburgh was taken very late into blue hour.
This shot was taken in Charleston, SC about 20 minutes before sunrise. A side benefit is that most of the tourists are still sleeping soundly.
What to shoot
Generally the best scenes include bright lights, neon lights and signs, moving lights like car headlights or tail lights, and maybe reflections of lights in water. You may also want to try light painting, which is a specialty of its own.
Reflections of the lights below are a natural for night photography.
Equipment
It should go without saying that other than a camera with adjustable settings, the most important piece of equipment is a good sturdy tripod, since your shutter speeds will be much too long to hand hold. To make maximum use of the tripods stability, either use a cable release or set your self-timer so your finger on the shutter doesn’t cause vibrations. Also on most stabilized lenses (IS, VR, OS etc), turn off image stabilization when shooting on a tripod.
You can use wide angle lenses for whole cityscapes or longer lenses for details. My favorite cityscape lens is the 17-40 mm on a full frame body. I always have the appropriate lens hood attached, both to protect the lens from bumps and to minimize lens flare. I have also heard that night photography is one time that you should remove any clear or UV filters, although I rarely think to do this.
Some photographers like to use a 4, 6, or 8 point star filter. This is a clear glass filter with lines etched into it to make point sources of light create a star patter. I don’t like to use them because the degrade the image overall and cause a loss of contrast and sharpness. Also if you want the choice of stars or no stars, you will be constantly swapping the filter on or off. You can get a natural star effect by stopping down to f/16 or f/22. Or my choice is to use software like Topaz Labs star effects. That way I can add the stars later and control the size and number of rays.
You will find a small flashlight or head lamp useful for checking camera settings and seeing your in or out of position. Many of the small LED lights are even bright enough to do some light painting.
How to Meter
I usually use aperture priority mode or sometimes manual mode, and I use Evaluative metering (Matrix on Nikon). Early in the blue hour it is pretty accurate. As the sky gets darker, the meter will try to compensate by increasing exposure. So as the blue hour progresses I will be dialing in exposure compensation, so that by the time I stop shooting, I’ll usually be at about -2 stops compensation. You can check your exposure on the LCD, by using the histogram, and by turning on the highlight warning to make sure you aren’t blowing out highlights. You will also have much more latitude and ability to correct your images later if you shoot in RAW rather than JPEG.
Since I like to shoot HDR, and find that it works well for night photography, I usually shoot a three shot bracket at -2, normal and +2 stops. Even with brackets, I’m usually dialing in exposure compensation as the sky gets darker. I may not always create an HDR image, but then I have a range of exposures to choose from when I process.
Here’s a quick tip to save some time. As it gets dark, your exposures may be as long as 30 seconds. If you want to shoot a test shot, each test will take 30 secs. To save time while you test, set your ISO to 1600, make your test shot and then reset your ISO to 100 or 200 for your actual shot. If you are in aperture priority, you don’t have to do anything. If you are in manual mode, remember to increase your exposure time 3X longer for ISO 200 or 4X longer for ISO 100.
Color Balance
Color balance can vary a lot depending on the lighting in the location you are photographing as well as personal taste. I always shoot in RAW, so I normally just stay on daylight balance and adjust later. This doesn’t work well if you shoot in JPEG. In JPEG, you may want to try auto color balance, or tungsten. Tungsten balance will also make the sky go even bluer. One trick to try is to set your camera on LiveView mode and then scroll through all of the color balance settings on your camera until you find the one that looks best to you.
This picture was shot in daylight balance, but later corrected to tungsten balance. This is also later than I would normally shoot, since the sky is almost black. but the reflections help fill the empty blackness.
One problem that is becoming more common is sodium vapor lighting. Cities are increasingly using it because it is more cost efficient and requires less maintenance than incandescent lighting. It casts a yellow or orange cast that is impossible to correct. That is because most light sources produce light with varying amounts of all of the colors of the spectrum. We can color correct by decreasing the dominant wavelengths and bringing up the weaker wavelengths. The sodium vapor lights have only a single wavelength – yellow. If we decrease yellow, there are no other colors to bring up and balance the yellow color, so we’re basically stuck with what we get.
The shot of Atlanta, below shows the effect of sodium vapor lighting on the right side of the shot.
Neon lights look good in daylight balance. There is no need to color correct, and why would you want to, since the colors are so attractive they become the subject.
Motion trails
Motion trails are produced by moving light sources and slow shutter speeds. The faster the objects move, and the slower the shutter speed, the longer the trails. The classic effect is cars headlights or tail lights on streets, but they could also include skiers with head lamps, planes, or even pedestrians with flashlights or headlamps.
Special Problems
Some of the best cityscape views are from pedestrian bridges or street bridges and overpasses. The movement of people walking by, or cars passing can cause vibrations that will ruin your shot. Try to shoot when no one or thing will create vibrations, and if it does happen try to reshoot that shot.
Also don’t forget traffic safety. Stay out of roadways, wear light or reflective clothing, and maybe even a light. Keep your eyes open and don’t trust that everyone out there is driving safely and alertly.
Also I hate to have to mention this, but be very aware of your surroundings and personal safety. It is very easy to get totally absorbed in the details of night photography, and not be aware of danger around you. The bad guys can certainly be out at any time of day, but they tend to prefer the dark They know the good spots for photography and where they can steal high end cameras and cash, and their favorite prey is clueless and paying no attention to what’s around them. A friend and I were photographing the Nashville skyline form the pedestrian bridge at dusk. It was cold, and we were the only people out until a shady looking character came out and chose the bench right across from us (out of dozens) and facing down river where there was nothing of interest. I really felt something was wrong and we quietly agreed to take turns shooting and watching this potential threat. Every time he looked over his shoulder at us, one of us was staring right back. Finally, right when I thought the robbery was about to go down, a large group of photographers came out on the bridge, and our friend decided it was time to leave. The moral of the story is BE AWARE, and if something feels dangerous, it probably is, so leave if you safely can.
1) Pay attention to all of the entry requirements.
The rules may specify a certain file format, such as jpeg. Some may accept TIFF, generally none will accept RAW. Many contests specify maximum image size in pixels, such as 1024×768 for PSC contests. PSC also has a maximum file size of 800kb. Most contests will automatically reject oversized or wrong format images. Also make sure you enter the maximum allowable size, or you will be diminishing the impact your picture has.
2) Make sure your picture fits the theme or subject if there is one.
Most judges won’t even score an image that doesn’t fit the theme. You may need to shoot specifically for a theme or you may have an existing image that fits well. Don’t enter an image that doesn’t clearly fit the theme. If you have to play word association games to make the image fit the theme, don’t enter it.
3) Make sure your picture is sharp; really sharp.
Soft, blurred or out of focus images get minimal scores. Even if it is a great subject, lack of sharpness kills your score. So zoom in and evaluate your image’s sharpness. Toss out anything less than perfectly sharp.
There are basically three things that ruin sharpness; camera movement, subject movement, and out of focus. Whenever possible use a good sturdy tripod. Also either use a cable release, or the camera’s self time to remove shake caused by pushing the shutter button. If you can’t use a tripod, use a higher shutter speed. The general rule has always been a shutter speed of 1/focal length. This is the slowest shutter speed you should hand hold, and faster shutter speeds are even safer. This may require a higher ISO, a wider aperture, or both. High ISO’s result in noise, but a sharp picture with some noise will always beat a blurred shot with no noise.
Subject movement can be handled with fast shutter speeds, using flash to freeze movement, or panning with the subject. Panning takes a lot of practice, has a high percentage of rejects, but it can look fantastic when it works.
The default for many cameras is for all focus points to be active, and the camera selects the closest subject to focus on. That may not always be the subject that you want to be in sharp focus. Select a single focus point and place it directly on the subject that you want to be in sharp focus.
A special note when photographing people (or animals) is to make sure the eyes are sharp and in focus. If depth of field is shallow, make sure the closer eye is in focus.
Here’s a shot taken at ISO 12,800 at an indoor concert. What looks like bright light to your eyes is really pretty dim to the camera. There were no tripods allowed, so to keep a fast enough shutter speed I used a wide aperture and very high ISO. Is it a bit noisy? Yes. But is it sharp? Yes. You can see the noise in the cropped image, particularly in the red shadow areas.
Here are two portraits. The first is “almost” good enough. The second is razor sharp. Look at the crops of the eyes. Don’t even think about entering the out of focus shot. No matter how good the subject or expression, lack of sharpness kills the score.
4) Choose an image with impact.
The image is large, bright, super sharp, unique, photographed from an unusual viewpoint, or anything that creates that WOW factor and leaves no doubt what the subject is.
Here are two osprey shots. The first is so far away that he is tiny in the frame and barely recognizable. Add to that poor lighting and a dead center composition and it is a horrible picture. If it is the first and only osprey picture you ever took, you might be all excited about, but the judges won’t be. The second shot is close, has better composition, better lighting, more impact, and actually tells a story about the osprey.
5) Use composition to draw attention to your subject and be aware of elements that draw a judges eye away from your main subject.
All of the “rules” of composition exist to help direct your viewer’s (or judge’s) eye to what you want him to see. Yes, rules are meant to be broken, but pay attention to where your eye is drawn when you analyze a shot.
Leading lines can help lead a viewers eye to your subject. The first shot has effective leading lines. The second has leading lines that take you to a pair of poorly lit, uninteresting deer and then continue to lead you past them and right out of the picture, never to return. Be aware of the power of lines.
Camera angle and viewpoint can have a drastic impact on the image and what it conveys. Wide angle lenses exaggerate a sense of perspective, and telephoto lenses compress. The two shots below show the difference between a wide angle lens and a high viewpoint and a lower viewpoint with a longer lens. Can you feel the difference in impact between the two?
The rule of thirds divides your image into thirds horizontally and vertically. The intersections of these lines are “power points” and placing the most important elements on these points emphasizes them. Most importantly, it avoids the more boring dead center placement. Look at where the eyes are placed in the first two portraits. Compare them to the third where the eyes are dead center. Also look at all of the “dead space” that contributes nothing to the portrait.
Border mergers are elements on the borders of your photos that draw the eye to the edge of the frame and away from the main subject. Pay attention to the edges when you shoot, or use cropping and content aware fill or cloning to remove them later. Look at the difference simply removing the branches at the upper right makes.
Make sure your horizons are level. This is an easy fix in Lightroom and Photoshop. Better yet, make sure your camera is level when you shoot. Here I also changed exposure and contrast, but the most important change was fixing a badly tilted horizon.
Bright areas tend to draw the eye. This can work for you, or against you. Also many photographers darken the corners or use a dark vignette to help hold the viewers eyes on the main subject. In the pictures below, I cloned away the bright pavement, the tip of the white star, the yellow patch and the white blur. Do you see how much easier it is for your eyes to stay on the gun turret as the main subject?
Your eye is drawn to the area of sharpest focus, so make sure that is your subject. Putting distracting background elements out of focus keeps them from competing with your main subject. Wide apertures provide shallow depth of field to limit sharp focus. The first example is ridiculously shallow depth of field, but can you look anywhere but at that one eye? In the second picture, imagine if all of the background elements and highlights were sharp; the subject would not stand out so clearly.
Your lens choice and perspective has a powerful effect on how the viewer sees your subject. In the picture below, a wide angle lens and perspective make it obvious who the leader of the band is. It’s not so obvious that he is the shortest band member.
6) Correct the color balance.
Match your color balance to the light on your subject. Sometimes auto color balance works, but sometimes it is better to select an actual color setting such as tungsten, florescent, shade or daylight. If you shoot in RAW, you have more options for correcting color balance in post processing. Sometimes there are odd color balances that require trial and error correction. The first two pictures were shot in a large room with no lights. All of the lighting was reflected from green leaves and came through windows covered with green mold. I don’t think any auto color balance setting could have fixed this. But imagine how contest judges would react to the uncorrected shot. The concert shot shows the same shot as above, but shot with daylight balance under tungsten lighting. Notice the yellow cast compared to the correct white balance.
7) Add contrast if needed.
At one of our recent meetings our judges did a critique of the images for a quarterly contest. Their number one comment was “needs more contrast”. Generally that means that somewhere in the picture are some blacks that are close to true black, and some highlights that are bright without being blown out to pure white without detail. Here is an extreme example from a heavily overcast day with fog and mist that completely destroyed contrast. Restoring some contrast in editing made a big difference.
8) Try to tell a story.
Creating mood, drama, setting a scene, and good expressions all help a picture score well. One comment I hear a lot from judges is “There’s nothing happening here.” All of your composition tools, lighting, and choice of color or monochrome can help create a mood. Below is a pretty plain shot of a room. Look at the difference when I got to shoot a couple of the men who had been living there for a few days. Notice how the mood changes even more in black and white.
9) Get a second opinion from a photographer whose judgment you trust.
It is all too easy to fall in love with your own picture and not see its flaws. It may be a picture of someone you love, it may remind you of a great day, or you worked very hard to get the shot. But it still may not be a great shot. Another photographer can be much more objective. Also if you find yourself explaining a picture to someone, it is probably not going to do well in a contest. In a contest your pictures have to speak for themselves.
10) Realize that you won’t always win.
In fact it’s almost certain that you will lose more than you win. Try not to get your feelings hurt and take it personally. Use it as an opportunity to look at the winners and see how to improve your own work. Whenever you can get comments from the judges, it can be a great insight into the minds of judges, and tell you what works and doesn’t, particularly if you can see comments for all of the entries. Also remember that every judge brings his or her own biases, due to background, training, experience, personal photographic styles and preferences, and even their mood on that day. If you don’t win, it may just mean that those particular judges didn’t like that particular image on that particular day. The same image may score well in another contest, with no changes other than the judges. At the same time, try to hold your ego in check when you do win. Again, all it means is that you pleased those judges on that day. When you can do well consistently, you will know that you have improved as a photographer. Entering contests can be very rewarding if you approach it as a way to share your work, receive feedback and grow as a photographer.
